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Issue 2: The Indo-European
Language Family
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Branches of Indo-European
• Germanic branch
• Indo-Iranian branch
• Balto-Slavic branch
• Romance branch
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Origin and diffusion of IndoEuropean
• Kurgan and Anatolian theories
Indo-European Language Family
Fig. 5-5: The main branches of the Indo-European language family include Germanic,
Romance, Balto-Slavic, and Indo-Iranian.
Germanic Branch of Indo-European
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English and German are both
languages in the West Germanic
group.
West Germanic is further divided into
High Germanic and Low Germanic
subgroups, so named because they
are found in high and low elevations
within present-day Germany.
• High German, spoken in the southern
mountains of Germany, is the basis
for the modern standard German
language.
• English is classified in the Low
Germanic subgroup.
• The Germanic language branch also
includes North Germanic languages,
spoken in Scandinavia.
• The four Scandinavian languages—
Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, and
Icelandic—all derive from Old Norse.
Fig. 5-6: The Germanic branch today is divided into North and West Germanic
groups. English is in the West Germanic group.
Indo-Iranian Branch of IndoEuropean
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The branch of the
Indo-European
language family with
the most speakers is
Indo-Iranian, more
than 100 individual
languages divided
into an eastern
group (Indic) and a
western group
(Iranian).
Indic (Eastern) Group of IndoIranian Language Branch
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The most widely used languages in
India, as well as in the neighboring
countries of Pakistan and Bangladesh,
belong to the Indic group of the IndoIranian branch of Indo-European.
Approximately one-third of Indians,
mostly in the north, use an Indic
language called Hindi.
Hindi is spoken many different ways—
and therefore could be regarded as a
collection of many individual
languages but there is only one official
way to write the language, using a
script called Devanagari.
Pakistan
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Pakistan’s principal language,
Urdu, is spoken very much
like Hindi but is written with
the Arabic alphabet, a legacy
of the fact that most
Pakistanis are Muslims, and
their holiest book (the
Quran) is written in Arabic.
Hindi, originally a variety of
Hindustani spoken in the
area of New Delhi, grew into
a national language in the
nineteenth century when the
British encouraged its use in
government.
South Asian Languages and
Language Families
Fig. 5-7: Indo-European is the largest of four main language families in South
Asia. The country of India has 18 official languages.
Iranian (Western) Group of IndoIranian Language Branch
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Indo-Iranian languages spoken in Iran and neighboring
countries form a separate group from Indic.
The major Iranian group languages include Persian (sometimes
called Farsi) in Iran, Pathan in eastern Afghanistan and western
Pakistan, and Kurdish, used by the Kurds of western Iran,
northern Iraq, and eastern Turkey.
These languages are written in the Arabic alphabet.
Balto-Slavic Branch of IndoEuropean
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Slavic was once a single
language, but
differences developed in
the seventh century A.D.
when several groups of
Slavs migrated from Asia
to different areas of
Eastern Europe.
East Slavic and Baltic Groups of
Balto-Slavic Language Branch
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After Russian,
Ukrainian and
Belarusian
(sometimes written
Byelorussian) are the
two most important
East Slavic languages.
The desire to use
languages other than
Russian was a major
drive in the Soviet Union
breakup a decade ago.
West and South Slavic Groups of
Balto-Slavic Language Branch
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The most spoken West Slavic
language is Polish, followed by
Czech and Slovak.
The latter two are quite similar,
and speakers of one can
understand the other.
The two most important South
Slavic languages are SerboCroatian and Bulgarian.
Although Serbs and Croats
speak the same language, they
use different alphabets.
Slovene is the official language
of Slovenia, while Macedonian
is used in the former Yugoslav
republic of Macedonia.
Romance Branch of Indo-European
Fig. 5-8: The Romance branch includes three of the world’s 12 most widely spoken
languages (Spanish, French, and Portuguese), as well as a number of
smaller languages and dialects.
Origin and Diffusion of Romance
Languages
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As the conquering Roman armies
occupied the provinces of its vast
empire, they brought the Latin
language with them the
languages spoken by the natives
of the provinces were either
extinguished or suppressed.
Latin used in each province was
based on that spoken by the
Roman army at the time of
occupation.
Each province also integrated
words spoken in the area.
The Latin that people in the
provinces learned was not the
standard literary form but a
spoken form, known as Vulgar
Latin, from the Latin word
referring to “the masses” of the
populace.
After the Fall of Rome
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By the eighth century, regions of the former
empire had been isolated from each other long
enough for distinct languages to evolve.
Latin persisted in parts of the former empire.
People in some areas reverted to former
languages, while others adopted the languages of
conquering groups from the north and east,
which spoke Germanic and Slavic.
Romance Language
Dialects – France
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Distinct Romance languages did not suddenly
appear.
They evolved over time.
The creation of standard national languages,
such as French and Spanish, was relatively
recent.
The dialect of the Ile-de-France region,
known as Francien, became the standard
form of French because the region included
Paris.
The most important surviving dialect
difference within France is between the north
and the south.
The northern dialect, langue d’oil and the
southern langue d’ôc provide insight into how
languages evolve.
These terms derive from different ways in
which the word for “yes” was said.
Romance Language Dialects –
Spain
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Spain, like France, contained many dialects during the
Middle Ages.
In the fifteenth century, when the Kingdom of Castile and
Leon merged with the Kingdom of Aragón, Castilian became
the official language for the entire country.
Spanish and Portuguese
Speaking Countries
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Spanish and Portuguese have
achieved worldwide importance
because of the colonial activities of
their European speakers.
Approximately 90 percent of the
speakers of these two languages live
outside Europe.
Spanish is the official language of 18
Latin American states, while
Portuguese is spoken in Brazil.
The division of Central and South
America into Portuguese- and
Spanish-speaking regions is the
result of a 1493 decision by Pope
Alexander VI.
The Portuguese and Spanish
languages spoken in the Western
Hemisphere differ somewhat from
their European versions.
Creole
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A creole or creolized
language is defined as a
language that results from
the mixing of the
colonizer’s language with
the indigenous language.
A creolized language forms
when the colonized group
makes some changes, such
as simplifying the grammar.
The word creole derives
from a word in several
Romance languages for a
slave who is born in the
master’s house.
Origin and Diffusion of IndoEuropean
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The existence of a single
ancestor cannot be proved with
certainty, because it would have
existed thousands of years
before the invention of writing
or recorded history.
The evidence that Proto-IndoEuropean once existed is
“internal.”
Individual Indo-European
languages share common root
words for winter and snow but
not for ocean.
Therefore, linguists conclude
that original Proto-IndoEuropean speakers probably
lived in a cold climate, or one
that had a winter season, but
did not come in contact with
oceans.
Kurgan Theory of Indo-European Origin
Fig. 5-9: In the Kurgan theory, Proto-Indo-European diffused from the Kurgan
hearth north of the Caspian Sea, beginning about 7,000 years ago.
Anatolian Hearth Theory of IndoEuropean Origin
e.
Fig. 5-10: In the Anatolian hearth theory, Indo-European originated in Turkey
before the Kurgans and diffused through agricultural expansion.